8 Ups And 6 Downs From Last Night's WWE Raw (May 1)

7. TJP Unleashes Vicious Streak

tj perkins austin aries
WWE.com

Silly new name aside, TJ Perkins had a good showing Monday night, displaying more of a mean streak than he had in his entire WWE tenure to this point.

TJP attacked Austin Aries’ knee throughout their match, trying to take A-Double out of action so he could get in line for a Cruiserweight Championship opportunity. Aries managed to turn a Detonation Kick into a Last Chancery for the tapout, but TJ quickly slapped on a kneebar to further injure Aries.

Typically, losing a match and getting your heat back would get some criticism, but the entire match and post-match beating helped establish Perkins as a vicious opportunist, which is better than his previous “video game aficionado” persona.

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Contributor

Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.